Win7 won't install on new laptop, need ideas...

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by RASelkirk, Jan 30, 2016.

  1. RASelkirk

    RASelkirk MDL Senior Member

    Feb 4, 2010
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  2. RASelkirk

    RASelkirk MDL Senior Member

    Feb 4, 2010
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    Thanks for the reply. I just finished going through the same old chit with the same old results. Here's where it's breaking down:

    (BTW, GPart defaults to MSDOS partitioning, and all my partitions showed up fine in the next step)...

    Just in case, I removed all my GPart formatting back to a blank drive formatted as NTFS and with bootable checked. Booting from a Win7 DVD, I can get to the install screen and see my one big open drive. Then I format this partition, which shows up as "Disk 0, Partition 1, Primary". Next step is to install Windows, where a nasty little msgbox pops up saying "Setup was unable to create a new system partition, or locate an existing partition". End of game.

    On the drivers, I tried every single Win7x64 driver in both the AMD and Toshiba packages (the option was set to hide incompatible drivers). Out of them all, the Windows setup only recognized about 4 or so (out of maybe 15?). After each driver loaded, I pressed "next" and got something about Windows has found a problem and will attempt to repair it. When I press the "Repair and Restart" button, I get another nasty msgbox saying "Failed to save startup options". Oddly, I went back and tried the x86 drivers and some of those loaded. It does no good if I can't get past the unrecognizable system disc...

    Am now trying, again, to load my Acronis "C" drive files back to this "unseen" drive. At least that had a flicker of boot to it...

    Russ
     
  3. MrMagic

    MrMagic MDL Guru

    Feb 13, 2012
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    Disable secure boot in the BIOS?
     
  4. RASelkirk

    RASelkirk MDL Senior Member

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    Did that right off, that and take it out of UEFI mode...

    Just found out my Acronis recovery barfs out an error msg right before it finishes, it cannot find "ven_1022&dev_7801&subsys_ff1e1179&rev_00" driver. This shows to be "AMD PCI IDE Controller Driver". I have looked and found a couple places to DL it, but you either have to "like" it on FB to get a DL link or it DL's an exe. I'm not on any social media and don't plan to be. The other thing sounded fishy anyways.

    Russ
     
  5. 100

    100 MDL Expert

    May 17, 2011
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    That really shouldn't show up as an "IDE controller". Are you sure the SATA controller mode is set correctly in the BIOS? It should be set to "AHCI" or "SATA" mode.
    Also the chipset driver package does have a driver for that device ID, in the path I mentioned earlier. Unless the controller is in fact set to operate in IDE compatibility mode I don't see why it wouldn't work.
     
  6. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    #8 LatinMcG, Jan 31, 2016
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2016
    7b = ahci driver missing.
    subsys isnt a must.. just edit the inf to not include &subsys_ff1e1179&rev_00
    and it should install if setup.sif is in it.
    use advanced button to load driver from USB for AMD AHCI

    if you been doing 25 yrs... how come u dont know about ahci missing drivers? very common issue.
    recovery disk ? just use the media creation tool for 8 or 10.
     
  7. RASelkirk

    RASelkirk MDL Senior Member

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    Never had a problem in 25 years, guess that's why. So, you're saying just clip the INF text to "ven_1022&dev_7801"? Also, my folder doesn't have a SIF file. This is what I'm seeing:

    (\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\hseries\AHCI\W7\)

    Amd_sata.cat
    EULA.txt
    ReadMe.rtf
    Release_Public.rtf
    amd_sata.inf
    amd_sata.msi
    amd_sata.sys
    amd_xata.sys

    Is there a way to unpack the MSI or is it even necessary?

    Thanks!

    Russ
     
  8. 100

    100 MDL Expert

    May 17, 2011
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    No, but the driver should be picked based on vendor and device IDs alone. Additional sections in the .inf can be used to give a more specific driver (e.g. one that applies to specific subsys value) precedence over a generic one that does not, in case multiple drivers are available. Therefore it shouldn't be necessary to edit the .inf either.

    The driver package here consists of *.cat, *.inf, and *.sys, so that's all you need. The .msi probably just provides a way of installing and uninstalling the driver using msiexec.exe and isn't necessary.

    If you're working with x64, that's the wrong install package. The directory name for x64 is "W764A", "W7" is for x86.
     
  9. RASelkirk

    RASelkirk MDL Senior Member

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    You're right, I needed to go down one more level to get to "W764A". Finally got on the Toshiba forum, will be interesting to see if Win7 is even possible on this laptop. It seems (from Googling) that Win7x64 will work with UEFI, I'm gonna try again tomorrow. It may all be for naught...

    Russ
     
  10. RASelkirk

    RASelkirk MDL Senior Member

    Feb 4, 2010
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    It will work, I actually had Win7 running overnight. Tried my Acronis restore and down she goes again. The biggest problem was the disk formatting (thanks 100!). Even though GPart defaults to MBR and my partitions showed as MBR, the Win7 install never recognized the drive properly. I ended up using DISKPART to fix it and the install actually happened.

    Do all Win7+ installs use/need the 100 meg "system" partition? I don't remember this on my previous x86 installs. That may have been another problem...

    Russ
     
  11. 100

    100 MDL Expert

    May 17, 2011
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    There are two types of the "system" or "boot" partition.
    For UEFI machines there's the EFI system partition (ESP) which contains EFI application(s), most commonly the boot manager for the OS. This is needed here because UEFI spec mandates a FAT partition from which it loads these applications; it doesn't boot directly from an OS-specific filesystem such as NTFS or ext3.

    Booting from MBR, as the name suggests, is done through a boot loader stored in the master boot record and doesn't require a dedicated partition. All Windows 7+ releases create the separate partiton by default though since it's a requirement for enabling BitLocker (you couldn't otherwise load the boot manager from the encrypted partition).
    Vista didn't do that, so when you wanted to enable BitLocker you would have had to repartition and move the boot manager off the OS partition. I think that was the main reason for separating OS and boot manager by default. The reason for the default size of this partition increasing (350 MB for Win 8, 450 MB for Win 10 IIRC) is so that you can have the bootable recovery environment (WinRE) there as well. The recommendation for UEFI therefore is to have WinRE on a separate unencrypted partition also (ESP is not used for that).
     
  12. atgpud2003

    atgpud2003 MDL Addicted

    Apr 30, 2015
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    You might want to disable UEFI Secured Boot, by delete it.. then make sure use LEGACY and set to ACHI SATA and also reboot and go back to the bios check see you have DVD RW and Hard drive show up the bios. then boot up the DVD and go to Windows Installation, you want delete all partitions and install all partition, it prompt will leave 100MB for Reserved.. Should works fine.. I had done laptop and desktop everyday.. I am tech for 40 years!

    ATGPUD2003
     
  13. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    hp win 8 and up have hidden tools in the EFI partition also! like the backup copy of bios .bin and sig files.. and diagnostic hp tools F2 key on boot.
     
  14. RASelkirk

    RASelkirk MDL Senior Member

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    Still nothing, I'm pretty sure there's a HD/partition/MBR problem that I'm not understanding. I'm "old-school", going back to DOS 3.0 & Win3.0. Have formatted & installed lots of OS's up to XP, but this Win7 is killing me! I've got over 20 hrs of frustration in this basic install so far! I cannot even get it to install to a clean HD anymore - AT ALL. I can delete and format, but when installing from the boot disc, I get: "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See setup log for more details". I have my BIOS set to CSM mode, I guess because I'm familiar with that. Tried UEFI and couldn't even get a boot screen...

    The reason for asking is I have my old 'puter backed up with Acronis 11, which rewrites the entire disc, structure and all. The docs say whatever disk mode is on this backup will be written to the new HD, so maybe the old one is actually already in UEFI mode? Whatever the case, my restore completes w/o error, but boots to a black screen stating "no boot manager found, press CTL-ALT-DEL to restart". From here, I can boot off the Win7 disc and my install shows up. I do a repair and it completes OK the 1st time. On reboot, I get the boot manager error again and the 2nd repair attempt fails. I've used diskpart and tried all the bootrec options. All partitions show, but none can boot...

    I guess I need to reboot this 'puter and see what mode the BIOS is set to. Been there a number of times and don't recall seeing a setting for it. Feel like I'm Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day"! Right now, I'm converting my Acronis b/u to a Windows version to try and load it from the boot, got another 1 1/2 hrs to run.

    Pic of my old Toshiba laptop drive layout, shows the hidden recovery partition. I need to duplicate this on my new laptop and somehow be able to boot it...

    Sigh...this used to be so simple!

    Russ

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